« …Un lied de Schumann » Politique et esthétique du chant

The melody that Saint-Loup is humming when he last encounters the hero, before leaving for the front, comes from the Dichterliebe. Presented implicitly in the novel, Germanophilia is associated with the artistic direction of Proustian writing. The quasi-political dimension of this aesthetic indicates a delicate but firm stance against chauvinism and nationalism. To attain the birth of art, music plays the ‘foreign’ role which speech needs.